Fear dominates new book festival line-up!

Faclan - the Hebridean Book Festival returns on 31 October and Early Bird tickets are available now.

‘Fear, from unease and foreboding to outright terror’, is the theme of this year’s Faclan which will open on Hallowe’en, 31 October.

Faclan is one of the flagship cultural events at An Lanntair and draws audiences and top-level authors from across the UK.

This year, a new Faclan Fringe will spread the festival programme across the island.

Highlights will include Peter May, whose Lewis trilogy has brought Hebridean Noir to an international audience; Sir Christopher Frayling, who will discuss the 200th anniversary of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; and acclaimed author Louise Welsh, who will reflect on the role of fear in her work.

The Faclan Fringe is supported by LEADER funding and is part of a brand new programme of winter festivals that will continue at An Lanntair until March 2019.

Full programme details will be announced – along with the rest of the Faclan programme – at the beginning of September.

As in previous years, Faclan's author events will be supported by a series of daytime film screenings – which this year will also focus on the festival theme of fear.

Early bird tickets for the festival are available now at the special price of £55, which grants you access to events across the festival.

An Lanntair’s Head of Visual Arts and Literature, Roddy Murray, said: “Faclan each year is not so much programmed as orchestrated.

“The intention is to juxtapose, cluster and sequence speakers and events to create an experience that exceeds its component parts.

“It is no accident that writers like Philip Hoare have called it ‘extraordinary’ and ‘a gift’.”